Chopan Charcoal

I only recently found out about Chopan Charcoal restaurant at Milton, thanks to a review by Tony Harper in the Brisbane News. Apparently the restaurant opened in 2006, but until last weekend I'd been completely oblivious to the existence of an Afghani restaurant in Brisbane.

I'm always very keen to try out new cuisines, so it only took us a week or so to pay Chopan Charcoal a visit. It's in a bit of a tricky spot for parking, on the corner of Milton and Baroona Roads at Milton, but it's extremely handy to Milton train station.

Chopan Charcoal has a fairly small dining room, but the walls are smattered with Afghani decor. I'm also guessing that the low level music in the background was Afghani (which added to the overall atmosphere).

We were greeted by a friendly waitress, shown to our table and given menus. The menus look excellent from the outside - they have a very cool picture of a horseman in traditional dress on the front cover. Once you open up the menu, you'll see it's divided into entrees, salads, kebabs, kormas, pastry dishes and desserts. There are also pictures of a few dishes inside the menu.

A few options on the menu were listed as no longer available, and most of the prices had been changed at some stage along the line (some with liquid paper). Sure the presentation of the menu could be a bit better, but I didn't really care if the food was going to be good.

The only entree which looked gluten free was the chapli kebab (spiced beef patties) which I promptly ordered. The other entrees at Chopan Charcoal are bulani (savoury pastry filled with potatoes & herbs) and samosa (savoury pastry filled with spiced mince & served with chutney).

Shortly after our orders had been taken, the waitress popped out to let me know that due to a large order of chapli kebab earlier in the night, they had run out. So sadly no entree for me.

My wife ordered the bulani ($9.50). When these arrived at the table they looked and smelled delicious. There were two slices on the plate, and the dish consisted of a thin pastry filled with potato and herbs. The pastry was so thin, you could see the green herbs inside. The bulani were served with a small pot of yoghurt and although I didn't get to try any, my wife enjoyed them - the herbs were fresh and the pastry was crisp. Judging by the amount of bulani we saw going to other tables it was a popular entree.

By this time, and after having the flavours of the bulani waft my way, I was starving. Fortuitously I had ordered the mixed kebab plate ($24). When this arrived at the table, I was glad I hadn't ended up getting an entree, because I would have struggled to finish my main. The mixed kebab consisted of one each of the chopan kebab (lamb pieces on the bone marinated in spices), shaami kebab (minced lamb with ground garlic & cherry tomatoes), chicken kebab and teeka kebab (lamb backstrap marinated in spices). The four kebabs had been cooked over charcoal and were served on a large square plate, on a bed of rice, with a green salad on the side.

This turned out to be a lot of meat, and would be a great dish to share around the table. My pick of the kebabs was the chopan kebab, which had a delicious flavour from the marinade, but the shaami kebab wasn't far behind. As this dish isn't served with any sauce, a small pot of yoghurt would make a good addition.

My wife ordered the burani banjan - eggplant cooked with fresh tomatoes, garlic & onion and served with yoghurt. The burani banjan was also served with a side dish of white flat bread. Without a doubt, this dish was the star of the night. Eggplant cooked well is one of my favourite foods anywhere, and this dish was excellent. Normally I'm not a big fan of a lot of onion, but the slices of onion in this dish were meltingly soft and had picked up a lovely flavour from the eggplant. I tried to steal as much of the burani banjan as I could, because it was a fantastic accompaniment to my kebabs. By the time we'd finished this dish there wasn't even a drizzle of the sauce left on the plate, as it had all either been stolen by me, or was mopped up by the flat bread. If you do visit Chopan Charcoal, make sure you order the burani banjan.

Other main course options include karahi (BBQ lamb pieces with tomatoes, eggs & herbs), qabuli (rice with lamb pieces, carrot, sultana & meatball korma), lubia korma (red kidney beans cooked in tomato sauce with selected spices) and mantoo (steamed pastry filled with spiced minced lamb).

At this stage of the night we didn't have any room for any more food, but if you are after something sweet there are a few dessert options, including firni, an Afghani custard served with toasted almonds.

Service was friendly during the night, and fairly relaxed. Although we didn't wait very long for either course, you get the feeling that care is taken with the food at Chopan Charcoal and nothing happens in a hurry.

Chopan Charcoal is BYO and there's a bottle shop handily located in the Baroona Road centre next door. Be warned though, the wine glasses are tiny, so you'll find yourself topping them up every few minutes.

I'm always excited to come across new cuisines in Brisbane and Chopan Charcoal didn't let me down. Although it's a fairly rustic setting, I'll definitely be back with a few friends next time, in order to share a good selection from the menu around the table. Chopan Charcoal is also very good value - our meal was $46.50, so it's not going to break the bank balance even after a few visits.

What does all this mean? Tasty grilled meats and rich vegetable dishes add up to a night of exotic Afghani food, that's both BYO and great value.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Good
Value for Money - Great
Ambience - Rustic feel with Afghani touches
Vegetarian - Good
Wine - BYO

Chopan Charcoal
Corner Milton & Baroona Roads
Milton 4064
P - 07 3367 2212

Tibetan Kitchen

During my uni years, the Tibetan Kitchen in the Valley was one of our tried and trusted dinner spots. It was BYO, the food was tasty and it was cheap - it ticked all the important boxes. There were countless nights when we'd occupy a room there from about 7pm until very late, popping out every few hours when the wine had run out for resupplies. Now that I think about it, the restaurant was probably lucky it didn't have too many tables of diners like us.

Anyway I hadn't eaten at the Tibetan Kitchen for years and there's now one at Petrie Terrace as well. We headed in to the Petrie Terrace restaurant a Saturday night for dinner.

The Tibetan Kitchen on Petrie Terrace is in a building that used to be occupied by Romeo's, one of Brisbane's iconic Italian Restaurants. Although a few Tibetan decorations have been added to the room, there's still an Italian feel to it. The food however is well and truly not Italian. Here you'll find Tibetan, sherpa and Nepalese food - with about 60 items on the menu, there's plenty to choose from.

The large menu also means it takes a while to work out what to eat. The entree section of the menu had a few standout dishes - namche ko momo (steamed Tibetan style dumpling with coriander, ginger & garlic served with homemade chutney - $6.90), sekuwa (chicken or lamb marinated in yoghurt, fresh ginger and garlic curry sauce, served with salad - $7.90) and aloo chop (potato patties with Nepalese herbs & spices, covered in chickpea batter and served with homemade chutney - $6.90). There are also a few soups on the menu, including the tempting dhaal soup of lentil, tomato, ginger, garlic, onion and vegetables with fresh coriander ($6.90).

In the end I settled on a serve of tipan tapan, partly because of the catchy name. The menu told me that tipan tapan was a traditional Nepalese snack, prepared with fried chicken or beef, potato curry, crispy rice and a spicy sauce. This turned out to be a substantial snack - there was a good amount of both the chicken and potato curry, which had been scattered with crispy rice (the crispy rice looked very similar to rice bubbles). It was tasty enough, but the real winner on the plate was the spicy sauce, which had a good, hot chilli kick to it.

We also had a serve of the aloo chop (4 pieces), which had obviously been freshly made. The potato filling had a lovely flavour to it - we could pick out fresh ginger and chilli. The round patties had been well cooked, and were matched with a spicy, peppery sauce. Again, this was a very filling starter.

There's a very wide selection when it comes to main course - chicken, lamb, beef, goat, prawns and fish all feature on the menu. The Tibetan Kitchen is also a good spot for vegetarians, with 15 non-meat options. The more interesting main courses were the shakpa (stew of lamb, potatoes, vegetables, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and dumplings cooked with fresh coriander and curry sauce - $15.90), bakra ko tihun (goat curry on the bone with pumpkin & squash) and the jhinge macha ra aduwa (prawns cooked in a lime, ginger & coconut milk curry, topped with fresh coriander - $17.90).

I ordered the khasi ko masu, described as traditional Himalayan vindaloo - pieces of lamb cooked in a Nepalese curry sauce, topped with coriander ($15.90). Expecting that this could be a pretty fiery dish, I ordered it medium. There was plenty of lamb in the curry when it arrived, and the sauce had a good chilli zing to it. I also enjoyed the fresh coriander sprinkled over the curry, but if you order this dish, you really need something else to accompany it - it was all meat and nothing else.

Luckily for me, my wife ordered the somar (tofu curry). This was a Nepalese style curry with sour cream, coconut milk, capsicum, garlic, ginger, fresh coriander and green chilli ($13.90). The somar was made with pieces of silken tofu, and it was an excellent dish. It was a beautifully fragrant curry, with lovely delicate flavours that really complemented the tofu. I quickly got a bit bored with the plate of meat before me and shifted my attention to the delicious plate of tofu.

Unfortunately the place was fairly dead the night we were there. Although we arrived at about 7pm, there was only one other table of guests in the restaurant. Only two more tables of diners came in during the night, so it would have been a very slow night for the restaurant. It's also a fairly big room, so it felt a bit deserted.

Tibetan Kitchen is both BYO (wine only) and licenced. Staff were very friendly throughout the meal, although I found it a bit odd that one of the chefs came to the table at the start of the night to take our order.

All up, the Tibetan Kitchen is a good spot for a big group dinner, where you'd get the opportunity to order a wide selection from the large menu. It's solid, reliable food, rather than anything spectacular, although both the vegetarian meals were ordered were excellent.

What does all this mean? A huge range of tasty Nepalese and Tibetan food at good prices - BYO drinks and a big table of friends to get the most from the menu.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Good
Ambience - Tibetan & Nepalese clash with the Tuscan feel
Value for Money - Great
Wine - Small selection or BYO
Vegetarian - Great

Tibetan Kitchen
216 Petrie Terrace
Brisbane 4000
P - 07 3367 0955
W - http://www.tibetankitchen.com.au/

Grill'd

Unfortunately for the last 3 years or so, hamburgers have been wiped out from my essential food groups. Surely it can't be that hard to source gluten-free rolls for a hamburger? Apparently it is. Other than Raw Energy (who make amazingly good, healthy hamburgers) I haven't come across anywhere around Brisbane that actually serves gluten free burgers. That was until I got the tip to mosey along to Grill'd.

To say that I was pretty happy when reading through the menu at Grill'd is an understatement - I was over the moon to find out they'll do any burger with a gluten free bun. I know it probably sounds a bit lame to be so excited about eating a burger, but I had 3 years to make up. I've been repaying my delight by becoming a very regular customer of Grill'd at Rosalie ever since.

Now don't think that Grill'd only does food for crazy, fussy, gluten free types like me - they have a range of burgers for everyone (even vegetarians!).

You'll start off by choosing a bun - panini, traditional burger roll or gluten free. All buns at Grill'd are baked daily, and a gluten free one will set you back an extra $1.50 (small change as far as I'm concerned).

After you've picked your bun, you need to decide on a filling - beef, chicken, lamb or vegetarian - all up there are 18 burgers to choose from the menu.

We've slowly been working my way through the menu, and here's my thoughts on what I've munched away so far:

Crispy Bacon & Cheese - lean beef, crispy bacon, tasty cheese, salad, relish and herbed mayo ($9.90). As much as I hate to admit it, I ordered this with distant memories of greasy, yet so tasty bacon double cheeseburgers from Hungry Jacks. As you'd expect, this tastes way better than anything I ever had at Hungry Jacks. I thought this burger worked really well - none of the fillings overpower the others, the bacon was actually crispy and I really enjoyed the relish.

Mustard & Pickled - lean beef, Dijon mustard, dill pickle, tasty cheese, salad & relish ($9.90). If we're sticking with the fast food analogy, I suppose this would be the equivalent of the golden arches' quarter pounder. I wasn't the biggest fan of this one - there were so many pickles on the burger that, combined with the mustard, you couldn't really taste anything else. Luckily that's easily fixed by just removing a few pickles. Order this burger if you're a fan of big, robust flavours.

Baa Baa Burger - lean lamb pattie with avocado, tasty cheese, salad, relish & herbed mayo ($11.50). This is my pick of the burgers so far. Although I'm in the middle of a major avocado fad at the moment, this burger is spot on - the relish, avocado, cheese and lamb pattie all combine so well together. I think the Baa Baa burger is going to be hard to top, but I'll keep trying.

Field of Dreams - grilled field mushroom, roasted peppers, basil pesto, tasty cheese, salad & herbed mayo ($10.50). This is my wife's favourite burger and I have to admit it did look very tasty. There's no vegie pattie on this burger - just a giant grilled field mushroom and the pesto gives the burger a real lift in flavour.

Garden Goodness - veggie pattie (which is vegan) with beetroot, tasty cheese, avocado, salad, relish & herbed mayo ($9.90). This one only gets an average score - my wife wasn't that impressed with the vegie pattie, which was a bit underwhelming in the taste department.

So I've still got another 15 burgers to try before exhausting the menu. You'll need to bring your appetite - the burgers are large, and it can be a challenge to get the whole thing into your mouth. But if you're ravenously hungry, their thick chips are very good ($4.30). You can order a little pot of herbed mayo, tomato relish or sweet chilli mayo to dip your chips in (70 cents extra). Out of the sauces, the tomato relish is my favourite, although I wish they had an aioli.

Grill'd seems to be popular with a good cross-section of the community - kids, teenagers, families and uni students. I've found the staff at Rosalie very friendly, particularly on my last visit, when I was just there with our 3 month old bub.

Although I've only put the contact details for the Rosalie store below, check out the Grill'd website for other locations around Brisbane.

What does all this mean? Quality burgers with fresh, tasty fillings that are light years ahead of their fast food cousins - the perfect emergency lunch.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Good (order at the counter)
Ambience - Very casual
Value for Money - Good
Wine - Very limited selection and a few beers
Vegetarian - Good
Gluten Free - Top Shelf

Grill'd
19-21 Nash Street
Rosalie 4064
P - 07 3367 1555
W - http://www.grilld.com.au/

Bittersweet Chocolate

For years and years Hot Chocolate at Paddington was my favourite place to buy chocolates in Brisbane. Many a weekend afternoon we would wander in there, take about 10 minutes to decide what chocolates to buy and then leave with big smiles on our faces, knowing that they'd be lucky to last a couple of hours at home (one of my friends would eat hers in the car on the way home).

So I was very disappointed to find out that Hot Chocolate had closed. That was until I found out that Ann Atkinson, the owner, had opened a new chocolate store at The Barracks, called Bittersweet.

Its taken me months to actually pop in for a chocolate fix, but I dropped in recently. It's only a small shop, just next door to Coles, but once you step inside the door you are surrounded by chocolate. Not only that, but you'll be overwhelmed by the amazing aromas of high quality chocolate.

Getting in the store is the easy part - then you have to decide on what to buy. I stuck with two of my past favourites - a white chocolate macadamia cluster and a macadamia caramel (and yes I do like macadamias). Branching out a little, I also picked up a champagne truffle, mainly because it looked delicious. Although I do love the macadamia chocolates, I have to admit that when it came to eating them, the champagne truffle was an amazingly decadent ball of chocolate.

My wife picked out a dark chocolate ginger disc, orange & coconut truffle and a dark chocolate truffle - out of those three the dark chocolate truffle was the winner by a nose.

All up there are 60 different flavours, including ginger & benedictine truffles, whipped cream snails and kumquat clusters. You can buy chocolates in boxes of 4, 8, 12, 24, 48 and 96 (if you're really in need of a chocolate fix). Otherwise you can select as many as you like for $15 per 100 grams.

If you haven't been to Bittersweet, you're missing out on some fantastic hand made chocolates. As you've probably guessed, I'll definitely be back.

Bittersweet
Tenancy 8, The Barracks
61 Petrie Terrace
Paddington 4064
P - 07 3367 3323
E - info@bittersweetchocolate.com.au
W - http://www.bittersweetchocolate.com.au/

Rice Paddy

I go out of my way to support neighbourhood restaurants, so after seeing a few ads for the Rice Paddy in our local newspaper, we popped in for dinner on the weekend.

The Rice Paddy is in a fairly innocuous block of shops on South Pine Road at Everton Park. If you didn't know it was there, you'd probably drive right past it - luckily we were looking out for it. The main reason I wanted to visit was because there were dishes on the menu that were different from the regulars you usually come across at suburban Thai restaurants around Brisbane.

We arrived to be greeted by a couple of friendly staff, who showed us to our table. We were offered menus straight away, and two glasses of water were brought to the table. A wine cooler was brought out in a stand next to the table, with plenty of ice, and two glasses of wine were poured. By this stage, we felt very welcome.

The entrees didn't jump off the menu at me, so I ordered satay chicken, my favourite Thai starter. Other entree choices include vegetarian spring rolls, golden bags (rice pastry filled with stir fried chicken, coconut, corn & oyster sauce), fish cakes and Thai dippings (roti pastry served with chilli jam and satay sauce).

When I saw the size of my four satay chicken skewers, I was very concerned about how I would ever finish my main course. They were four very generous satay skewers, with plenty of chicken. Although a couple of bits of the chicken were a little gristly, they were otherwise tender, properly cooked and covered in plenty of Thai peanut sauce. Even though I didn't need to eat them all, they disappeared off the plate.

We also ordered a serve of the crispy tofu. These were little squares of tofu that had been deep fried and served with a peanut chilli sauce. When this dish arrived at the table it was obvious that it had only just come out of the deep fryer. The outside of the tofu was beautifully crisp, while the inside was still delicate and soft - they'd been perfectly cooked. I've had some great tofu dishes recently and this is another very impressive one (they were also great to dip into my satay sauce).

If none of the entrees are your bag, order a soup instead - tom yum (lemongrass, mushroom, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice and chilli) or tom kha (coconut cream with lemon juice, mushroom, galangal and chilli). Each of the soups can be served with chicken, king prawns, seafood or vegetable & tofu.

Main course is where the menu gets more interesting. I went straight to the house specials, which include stir fried fish with ginger, duck garden, chicken kaffir lime leaves, king prawns tamarind, king prawns clay pot (sauteed king prawns with glass noodles, fresh ginger, black peppercorn and sesame sauce) and crying tiger (BBQ beef marinated with Thai herbs & oyster sauce, served with crushed roasted rice and spicy & sour sauce).

There were also some eye catching salads, like the lime pork salad (spicy pork cooked in lime sauce mixed with fresh vegetables), Rice Paddy golden salad (fresh salad greens with tofu and boiled egg served with peanut sauce and crispy sweet potato) and the prawn salad (cooked fresh prawns with lemon juice, fresh herbs and seasoned with chilli & lime dressing). I'll have to go back for the salads.

As much as I loved the sound of the crying tiger and the salads, I opted for the duck garden, thinking it might be presented in some very impressive fashion. Although there was no magical presentation, no-one would be disappointed by the size of the serving - it was huge. Unlike some duck dishes at Asian restaurants, this one was full of tender duck pieces. There were also plenty of vegetables - zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, carrot, sweetcorn, celery and cauliflower. While there was a distinct sesame flavour to the sauce, it didn't overpower the duck. A good (but not great) dish.

My wife ordered the stir fried vegetable & tofu with basil and chilli. As soon as it hit the table I could smell the amazing aromas of Thai basil. I only had a quick taste, but it was a lovely dish. The sauce was excellent - a bit of chilli kick complemented by the fragrant Thai basil. Plenty of vegetables and some more well-cooked tofu rounded off a delicious dish.

There are numerous other main courses, many of which you will find at your local suburban Thai restaurant - red, green, panang, massaman, yellow and chu chee curries, together with ten or so stir fry dishes. Most of main courses can be prepared with tofu and vegetables, so there are loads of options for non-meat eaters.

We both had so much of our main courses left that we asked for a couple of take away containers, not wanting to waste the food. The staff happily obliged and packaged them up with the coconut rice we didn't manage to eat either.

Service was terrific and friendly throughout the night. Our waitress happily re-filled my wine glass continually (which is almost unheard of at a BYO restaurant) and we were never short of water on the table. There was a good, comfortable space between courses, which we really needed because of the amount of food. All up our dinner was $55 (which included a Thai style iced tea), so it was a great value meal.

Although I wouldn't say the Rice Paddy is the best Thai food I've ever had, its a solid suburban Thai restaurant that I'll happily return to, so I can explore the rest of the menu.

What does all this mean? Well priced, tasty Thai food with very friendly service. Worth a visit to try interesting Thai dishes you don't often see around Brisbane.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Great
Ambience - Casual suburban restaurant, with Thai decorations
Value for Money - Great
Wine - BYO
Vegetarian - Great

Rice Paddy
Shop 5, 544 South Pine Road
Everton Park 4058
P - 07 3162 5219

Vespa Pizza

Unfortunately I don't get to write about many pizza places in Brisbane, because pizza is one of those things that was cruelly taken away from me when I found out I had coeliac disease (cue sad music).

Over the last couple of years though I've been perfecting a thin, crispy, gluten-free pizza base at home, but I've had a lot of trouble finding a good one out in the restaurant world. I suspect the main problem is that while a few restaurants around the place are now serving gluten-free pizza bases, the people preparing them don't eat the finished product on a regular basis, so the usual quality controls may slip by the wayside. The main disappointment, after trying plenty of gluten free bases, is that they tend to go really soggy. From my experience at home, the trick to a good gluten free base is pre-cooking it first, so it's on the way to getting crispy, then top with only a few ingredients and cook at a high heat. One day I'll remember to post up a recipe for my gluten free capricciosa pizza.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, one of my readers recommended Vespa Pizza at New Farm. We popped in a couple of weekends ago to give their pizzas a try. Vespa Pizza is right next door to Tandoori King (my current favourite Indian restaurant) on Merthyr Road.

We arrived at 7pm, which is a bit early for dinner in my book, but now we have a 3 month old daughter we don't get a lot of say in dinner time. Even though it was early, the place was packed. The tables out the front were full, the tables inside were almost full, and all the tables along the side courtyard area were also full. That's usually a good sign.

We were shown to a table in the side courtyard. It was pretty dark, except for the fairy light on the table - it would be the perfect table for a big date. I was immediately attracted to the Moroccan-style lamp on the side wall. On our trip to Morocco I was desperate to buy a Moroccan light shade, but had no idea how to get it back to Australia. Luckily our daughter was equally as transfixed by the light shade, which kept her entertained for most of our meal.

After having a look at their menu online, Vespa sounded like my kind of pizza place. Call me traditional, but I'm really not a fan of lamb shanks, Moroccan chicken and/or satay sauce on pizza - when it comes to pizza, I like them simple.

We didn't have a lot of time, so we weren't really interested in starters. But if you get to your table early, waiting for late arrivals, there are some tasty sounding entrees, including basil, diced vine tomatoes, buffalo feta and olive oil bruschetta ($8.50), crispy polenta pieces with rosemary and garlic aioli ($7) and marinated artichokes with fennel, mint and basil ($11).

We went straight for the pizzas. There are 20 to choose from, most of which only contain a few toppings. I fairly quickly narrowed it down to capricciosa (my favourite all-time pizza - pancetta, salami, olives, mushrooms, anchovies, red peppers - $19), suppresed (sopressa with tomato, olives and chilli - $18.50), pancetta and buffalo feta with rosemary and cracked pepper ($18.50) and salami and mushroom with basil, mozzarella and truffle oil ($18.50). I was in one of my "try something different" moods, so I went for the pizza bianco instead (pancetta, olives, cherry tomatoes, artichokes, capers, sea salt and fior di latte cheese - $19.50).

There's also a good range of pizzas to choose from if you're vegetarian (as you'd expect from a traditional pizzeria) including margherita (semi dried roma tomatoes with fior di latte cheese and fresh basil leaves - $18.50), mushroom ragout with spinach and feta ($19.50) and carciofi (artichoke hearts, buffalo feta, oven dried cherry tomatoes and rosemary - $19.50).

We thought we'd order a salad as well, just for a bit of variety, and the Caprese style salad took our fancy (vine tomatoes, fior di latte cheese, torn basil and olive oil - $12.50).

Although we had to ask a couple of times for our bottle of water to show up, the pizzas didn't take long to arrive. My pizza arrived first. Even though it had a gluten free base, it was thin and really crispy around the edges. They hadn't managed to get the crispiness through the whole base (if I was to be very picky) but it was probably the best gluten free base I've eaten at a restaurant. As for the toppings, they were excellent. Forget the Pizza Hut "load it up with 5 centimetres of toppings" - this pizza featured a few well chosen toppings, sparingly spread over the base. The white pizza (pizza bianco) meant there was no tomato sauce on the base, which again helped the flavour of the toppings to shine. I thought the capers might overwhelm the rest of the toppings, but they turned out to be tiny little ones, and everything worked together remarkably well. I managed to eat all but the last piece - it would have been rude to let such a good pizza go to waste.

My wife had ordered the carciofi pizza, which also turned out to be very tasty. There was a good, thin base which was perfectly crispy. The buffalo feta was apparently the star of the pizza, but worked well with the artichoke, cherry tomatoes and rosemary.

Our salad turned out to be very good, matching the quality of the pizzas. Forget thin slices of tomato & cheese that you usually come across with a Caprese salad - this one had huge big chunks of fior di latte cheese and equally large chunks of ripe tomatoes. There were plenty of basil leaves, either torn or cut into tiny bits. It was another reminder as to how good a simple salad can taste when it only contains top ingredients.

There is a very compact wine list, which features Italian wines and varietals. It was a fairly warm night, so I went with a glass of the Tuesner Salsa rose ($8.50/glass). Luckily it had a good level of acidity, which really helped with the strong Italian flavours on the pizza. Keeping with the Italian feel of the night, my wife ordered a San Pellegrino pompelmo soft drink ($3.50).

Other than having to ask for water a couple of times, our waitress was very friendly and unobtrusive. Our orders were taken quickly, and the pizzas were out within half an hour - good service all round.

I will definitely be back to Vespa Pizza to explore the rest of the menu. In these days where fast food places pile more and more tasteless toppings onto pizza, it's good to see that there are still restaurants like Vespa that concentrate on quality. If (like me) you're on a gluten free diet, put Vespa on your must visit list.

Sorry there are no photos, but our table was too dark for me to get any decent ones.

What does all this mean? Delicious, thin, crispy pizzas which each focus on a few high quality ingredients. A must visit if you're looking for good gluten-free pizza.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Good
Ambience - Casual, with seats out the front, inside and along the side
Vegetarian - Good
Wine - Compact selection, but pizza friendly
Value for Money - Good
Gluten Free - Great

Vespa Pizza
148 Merthyr Road
New Farm 4005
P - 07 3358 4100
W - http://www.vespapizza.com.au/

Zafron

After trying to eat at Zafron one night only to find the place full, I learnt my lesson and booked ahead to make sure it didn't happen again. Zafron is on Brunswick Street at New Farm, basically across the road from the old Village Twin cinema. Zafron is a Persian/Mediterranean restaurant, which means there is a wide selection of food on the menu.

As you walk in there are tables on the deck at the front, but the tables inside have a bit more atmosphere, especially because you can look at the enormous grill at the back of the room. I wouldn't want to be sitting at the table next to it, but it does look impressive. We sat in a booth type table on one side of the room. Although we'd booked for 4 people, it was a real squeeze fitting all our food on the table during the night.

There are some terrific starters at Zafron. We ordered one of the tapas shared plates for $25. The tapas plate had dolme (vine leaves stuffed with lamb & beef mince, split peas, rice, walnuts, blackcurrants and herbs), eggplant rolls (charred eggplant slices rolled with semi dried tomatoes, herbs & feta), kashki-badem-joon (lamb & eggplant slow cooked with goat's yoghurt & mint) and triangles of filo pastry stuffed with spinach, feta and pine nuts. The platter was delicious (the eggplant rolls and kashki-badem-joon were the winners), and a perfect way to start the night - I love having lots of little tasting dishes as an entree.

If you'd rather start the night off with dips, try the Mediterranean dip platter ($15) or the Persian dip platter ($15), each of which is served with three different dips, Turkish bread and fried lavash crisps.

Although it took me a while to pick a main course (there were a few that stood out), I eventually settled on their house specialty, the chello kebab ($28). These were chicken & lamb kebabs marinated with saffron, yoghurt & herbs and then char grilled on the Turkish barbeque. The kebabs were served with saffron rice, Persian yoghurt and a little salad. The kebabs were delicious, and the Persian yoghurt was a great accompaniment to both the lamb and chicken.

I also tried the Caspian chicken ($26), described on the menu as the chef's Persian nouveau signature dish. The Caspian chicken was a chicken fillet coated in pomegranate nectar and crushed roasted pinenuts which had been pan fried, then baked. It was served with a creamy saffron sauce, caramelised carrots and baby spinach. The Caspian chicken looked great, but I found it very rich - I wasn't convinced that the tangy pomegranate flavour gelled with the creamy saffron sauce.

Service during the night was friendly and generally attentive. At one stage our tiny table had so much food on it that the waitress ended up putting a bottle of water on the floor next to the table, because there was no room left. You can BYO wine, and corkage is $6 per bottle.

There is a good selection of meals for vegetarians, and gluten free meals are clearly marked on the menu (which was great for me).

Overall, Zafron is a great place to visit with a few friends, to try food that you don't come across in Brisbane very often. The entrees are particularly good - I'd be more than happy just to spend the night grazing on loads of the shared platters.

What does all this mean? A great range of tasty Persian & Mediterranean food, with excellent entrees to share around the table.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Good
Ambience - Persian decorations inside, with a giant Turkish BBQ
Value for Money - Good
Wine - BYO
Vegetarian - Great
Gluten Free - Good selection

Zafron
7/726 Brunswick Street
New Farm 4005
P - 07 3358 2655
W - http://www.zafrononbrunswick.com/

El Taco

El Taco Mexican restaurant was the auspicious venue for our 3 week old daughter's first dinner out. We'd eaten at El Taco about 5 or so years ago, but hadn't been back since. Seeing as it's just down the road, it was a good candidate for the 2-3 hour dinner window we had.

We knew the main courses were very filling, so we took it easy on the starters - we just ordered one serve of guacamole with corn chips, thinking that should be a safe bet in a Mexican restaurant. Unfortunately, while the guacamole was obviously fresh, it really didn't have much flavour. In fact we had to put a giant blob of it on the corn chips even to get a taste of avocado. Although the corn chips were thick and crunchy, we found the guacamole underwhelming.

If you're not a fan of guacamole, other entrees on the menu at El Taco include chilli dip, frijole dip (savoury mashed beans topped with chilli sauce) and a variety of nachos & tacos.

When it came to mains I ordered the chilli con carne (ground beef with whole beans, tomatoes, onions and chilli). After we had ordered, the waiter came out and told us that they had run out of rice for the night. It was only about 7.30pm at the time, so I was a bit surprised to find out that a Mexican restaurant had run out of rice. It was even more surprising considering that there was an IGA open about 50 metres up the road.

The waiter then seemed a bit taken aback when I said I'd like to change my order - I wasn't particularly keen to have chilli beef served with green salad. So instead I ordered one chicken enchilada and one beef enchilada. The menu described the enchiladas as "cheese with seasoned beef or chicken wrapped in a soft tortilla, covered with spicy chilli sauce, topped with more cheese and shallots and baked to mouth watering perfection". Although it was a very generous serving, the enchiladas were a disappointing because they didn't really have any distinctive flavour - more of a chilli kick in the sauce would have been welcome.

My wife ordered an enrollada with beans (an enrollada is an enchilada topped with sour cream). Again the enrollada was a filling, generous serve, but it didn't pack much punch in the way of flavour.

Overall I'd have to say that on this visit we found the food disappointing. Each of the dishes we ordered was just a bit bland for my liking. One of the main reasons I enjoy eating out is to eat food that we don't usually cook at home. Unfortunately, based on the dishes we ate on this visit, we cook tastier Mexican food at home. El Taco was fairly busy the night we were there, so it certainly has its share of supporters.

Other than the bizarre rice episode, service was friendly throughout the night. El Taco is BYO, and there is a handy bottle shop on Blackwood Street, if you find yourself thirsty.

What does all this mean? Generous servings of Mexican food at reasonable prices, but the meals could do with a bit more punch and variety of flavour.

food bling ratings

Food - OK
Service - Good
Ambience - Casual family surroundings with Mexican ornaments
Vegetarian - OK
Wine - BYO
Value for Money - Good

El Taco

50 Blackwood Street

Mitchelton 4053

P - 07 3355 9723

Lefkas Taverna

Every time I go to a Greek restaurant it brings back memories of the amazing food we ate in Greece. Our most memorable meals took place during our stay on the island of Paros (see the picture below) - beautiful salads with fresh feta, cucumber & olives, and a great selection of simply cooked fresh seafood. I got particularly hooked on the delicious grilled cuttlefish. When you've got great, fresh produce, why mess with it?


Which leads me to Lefkas Taverna at West End. Lefkas is a place that I had wanted to visit for years. We went there on a Friday night and the place was pretty much full. There were tables outside on the footpath, tables inside and a private room enjoyed by a big group having a fun night.

Our table was just inside the door. The room wasn't air conditioned, so it was a bit warm, but ok. Menus were brought out pretty quickly by a friendly waitress. The menu runs the gamut of traditional Greek food - mezes, seafood, grills and a good vegetarian section.

For starters we ordered some dolmathes ($5.90), eggplant dip ($7.90), homous ($7.90) and grilled haloumi cheese ($6.90). This selection turned out to be a great way to start the night. The two dips were served with a good amount of pita bread, which had been cut into manageable pieces. Out of the two dips, I thought the eggplant was better, but only by a nose. The homous had plenty of garlic in it, and was obviously fresh.

The dolmathes (vine leaves stuffed with rice) had been covered with a generous drizzle of tzatziki (cucumber & yoghurt dip), and the combination was terrific. There was so much tatziki that it basically became a third dip for the table. As far as I'm concerned, you can never have too many Greek dips on the table. I enjoyed the dolmathes, without finding them outstanding.

The final entree was the haloumi. There were good thick slices of haloumi, served with some lettuce and lemon. The haloumi was excellent, and had been perfectly cooked without drying out the cheese. The squeaky sound of haloumi against my teeth just has to be one of the best food experiences anywhere in the world.

We didn't manage to finish all the dips, but we got close. In the gap between entrees and our mains we couldn't help to be amazed by the amount of takeaways flying out the door. Not only the volume, but the enormous servings as well. If you live near West End, next time you can't be bothered cooking, head along to Lefkas and try out their great range of yiros and souvlakis.

After a comfortable break, our mains arrived. Again we had a good selection from the pretty large menu. I ordered a plate of pork yiros ($17.90). This turned out to be a plate which on one side was a huge pile of shaved pork pieces, and the other side was a green salad. The pork also came with a good serving of tzatziki. Although it really was a mammoth pile of meat, it was so delicious that I just couldn't stop eating. I especially enjoyed the crunchier bits of pork, that had seen more of the grill.


Other meals on the table were lamb souvlaki (skewered lamb with rice or Greek salad - $17.90), spanakopita (spinach & feta pastry with salad - $16.90) and stuffed capsicum ($13.90). Again, each of the meals were very generous portions. I didn't try any, but the spanakopita looked delicious. So did the stuffed capsicum (we'd ordered the vegetarian version). It was presented as a whole red capsicum, with a little lid cut in the top of it. The capsicum was stuffed with rice, dill, garlic, onions and shallots. The rice had been cooked beautifully, and made for a lovely, aromatic stuffing for the bright red capsicum.


As all the meals were pretty reasonably priced, we also ordered a small Greek salad for the table ($9.90). That turned out to be completely unnecessary, given the amount of food that came out. As unnecessary as it was, it was a winner. Tangy olives, crunchy cucumber and tart, crumbly feta is exactly what I want to be eating in a salad on a warm Brisbane night.

Given the big servings, none of us even contemplated dessert, as good as they sounded.

I'd have to say that the food at Lefkas Taverna is the best Greek food I've eaten in Brisbane. It was all fresh & tasty and came out in huge portions. Not only was the food good, but prices are extremely reasonable.

Service during the night was very friendly. Actually, I hardly noticed the service at all, which is always a good sign of a restaurant which is smoothly run.

As I mentioned earlier, there are loads of take away options as well. The prices on the take aways are ridiculously cheap. There are also pre-made dips and desserts in the fridge in the main room in case you want to take any of this lovely food home with you.

Finally, Lefkas is byo. There's a bottle shop next door, so you'll have no excuse to go thirsty as you munch on a selection of your Greek favourites.

What does all this mean? Excellent, tasty, fresh Greek food at low prices. If only there were more restaurants like this in Brisbane.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Great
Ambience - Casual, fairly basic suburban restaurant interior
Vegetarian - Great
Wine - BYO
Value for Money - Top Shelf

Lefkas Taverna

170 Hardgrave Road

West End 4101

P - 07 3844 1163

Kabuki 2 Go

I'm pretty lucky when it comes to eating sushi for lunch, because I've got an LR Sushi shop just across the road. I still haven't got around to putting up a post about its great sushi, but it will happen sooner or later. (By the way - if you want to avoid the crazy queue, go before 12pm).

In the meantime, it now has a quality competitor about 50 metres down the road, in the shape of Kabuki 2 Go. As you probably know, Kabuki is the Japanese restaurant at the Stamford Plaza Hotel. In the last week or so, it's opened up a take away sushi bar, just off Felix Street.

I wandered in the other day to see if it was as good as the rolls I've been buying from LR Sushi. The first thing I noticed was that the selection of rolls is smaller. There were only about 8-10 to choose from - at least that makes the choice easier. I bought 3 rolls - tofu, avocado & ginger, fresh salmon & avocado and a California roll. Each of the rolls was a good size - no skimping on ingredients here.

So what did they taste like? The short answer - excellent. I started with the California roll, because it looked like it was actually full of good crab (not seafood extender). It was probably the best of the three. The crab had a lovely, delicate flavour and by the time I'd finished it, I wished I had another. Next was the tofu, avocado & ginger, which I'd bought out of curiosity. Again this roll turned out to be delicious. The tofu and avocado were fresh and the pickled ginger provided a great contrast, both in flavour and texture. In comparison, the fresh salmon & avocado roll didn't bowl me over, but I think that's because its more delicate flavours were overwhelmed by the strong taste of the ginger in the tofu roll that I'd just eaten.

Although there isn't a huge selection of rolls, the quality is good. Kabuki 2 Go is also great value (considering the quality) with the rolls around the $2.20-$2.50 mark. You can also arrange take away catering platters if you call ahead.

With such good sushi on offer, I wonder how long it will be before Kabuki 2 Go starts eating into the long queue at LR Sushi just down the road? They are both streets ahead of the standard sushi rolls that you find in food courts around the city.

Kabuki 2 Go
Stamford Plaza Brisbane
Felix Street
Brisbane 4000
P - 07 3221 1999

Dakbla

It was Saturday night and I had a craving for Vietnamese. But I wanted to eat somewhere new. Then I remembered that we hadn't yet eaten at all the Vietnamese spots along Hardgrave Road at West End, so after some googling I narrowed the choices down to Dakbla or Trang. I picked Dakbla, pretty much out of the blue, and booked a table. It turned out to be terrific - I should impulse dine more often.

Finding a park around the restaurants on Hardgrave Road always takes a while. After driving around the block once, I fluked one just around the corner from the Tibetan Kitchen. When I walked through the door of Dakbla, the place was packed - usually a good sign. I found our table and noticed that they'd printed out a place card with our name on it - a nice touch. After a quick flick through the menu I was wondering why I'd never been here before.

Although the menu was extensive there weren't many entrees which really grabbed me. I ended up ordering the san choy bao roast duck. These were really good. The duck filling still had a bit of bite to it, and was a lovely consistency - lacking the oil which can drip out of inferior san choy bao as you bite into it. The lettuce leaves were crunchy and fresh, with a layer of crunchy noodles on the bottom. So far so good.

My wife ordered a serve of the veggie and tofu soup to kick off her meal. This is comically described on the menu as "ideas for vegetarians with veggies and tofu". It was ok and full of tofu, but wasn't overwhelming our tastebuds. There are probably better entrees on the menu.

If you're looking for alternatives to the soup, other entrees include spicy chilli quail, Vietnamese spring rolls, prawn & pork rice paper rolls, grilled skewered pork and chao tom (minced prawn wrapped around sugar cane, deep fried and served with fresh lettuce, herbs and vermicelli).

There are a huge range of meals for main course. I won't even try to cover them all, but the menu is divided up into omelettes, vegetarian, seafood, chicken, pork, beef, house rice, noodles and chef's suggestions (always my favourite).

Meals that took my fancy out of the chef's suggestions were mud crab with tamarind, fresh pippis with rotti bread (apparently a must try dish according to the menu), bird's nest seafood, Vietnamese chicken salad, green mango and papaw salad, and ca kho to (silver perch or cat fish slowly stewed in a clay pot with pork belly).

Because of the overwhelming amount of choices, it took me ages to decide what to eat. I eventually went for one of my favourites, and ordered pho. It sounds a bit boring, but we'd been to Paniyiri for lunch, where I'd filled up on octopus, cabbage rolls, haloumi, rice pudding and Greek wine. By this stage of the night I was after something clean and healthy. The pho was good, but not memorable. It was made in a more delicate style, where the soup didn't overwhelm everything else. A side dish was brought to the table with bean sprouts, lemon, basil and chili sauce. This was exactly what I felt like for dinner, but I didn't quite manage to finish it.

We also ordered the lemongrass tofu salad style - tofu marinated with seasoning, lemongrass and chilli, then deep fried and tossed with fresh garden salad & lime dressing. While my pho was enjoyable, the tofu was superb. I would have happily eaten it for a main course. There were three huge pieces of tofu, which all carried the flavours of the spicy marinade. Although it had been deep fried, the tofu still had a lovely texture, mainly because the chunks were so big. The fresh garden salad turned out to be a delicious, fresh coleslaw with a really zingy dressing. I'm not a vegetarian, but this was one of the best tofu dishes I've tasted in a long time.

Before our main courses arrived (but after we'd ordered), the couple next to us had an amazing dish brought to the table. It looked and smelt so good I just had to ask what it was. Turned out it was the deep fried flounder. It was served as a whole fish and our neighbours proceeded to completely devour the entire plate. Next time it will be deep fried flounder for me.

Although the menu is mainly Vietnamese, there's a smattering of Chinese, Malaysian, Singaporean and Indian dishes to keep your options open.

Dakbla is BYO and our meals went down extremely well with a Cape Mentelle semillon/sauvignon blanc. My wife had the home made lemonade, seeing as our new bub was only a couple of days away.

Service was snappy throughout our meal. The room at Dakbla isn't very big, and it's mainly wood. Given that the restaurant was full, it was fairly noisy - it's not the place you'd want to be wandering into for a big date on a Saturday night. Two courses each and the lemonade only came to $40, so it's excellent value.

If you haven't eaten Vietnamese food before, Dakbla is a great place to start. And if you are a fan of Vietnamese, book yourself a table this weekend. As someone who enjoys Vietnamese food, I was excited by the scope of choice, and will be going back as soon as I can.

What does all this mean? A huge range of interesting, fresh and tasty Vietnamese food that's great value and BYO.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Great
Ambience - Casual, lots of wood
Value for money - Great
Wine - BYO
Vegetarian - Great

Dakbla
65 Hardgrave Road
West End 4101
P - 07 3844 0594
E - Dakbla65@yahoo.com

Little Singapore

During my one hour of freedom at lunch I've been slowly working my way through the Asian eateries in and around the Elizabeth Arcade. My favourite spot so far is Little Singapore.

Little Singapore is on Charlotte Street, between the Elizabeth Arcade and George Street. I've been there twice for lunch now, and really enjoyed the food. On the first trip I ordered the crispy pork belly rice ($11.50). I'm an absolute sucker for pork belly, so it wasn't a hard choice. Although I found the pork belly a little on the cool side, there was plenty of it. The pork belly is served with a bowl of clear soup and a big mound of rice, which is topped with a sweet sauce that I can't put my finger on. I know it doesn't sound adventurous, but I enjoyed the pork belly so much I ordered it again on my second visit. I wasn't able to finish it on either trip.

If (unlike me) you can manage to look past the crispy pork belly, there are loads of other lunch choices. Particularly exotic sounding dishes include Assam cuttlefish with rice ($12.90), Nasi Lemak (rice with fried sole, fried peanuts, pickled vegetables, curry chicken & beef, cooked egg and sambal sauce - $11.90) and beef brisket & tendon rice ($10.50).

The interior of the restaurant has been set up to look like Old Singapore, around the 1950s. The room definitely has character, although the giant TVs obviously weren't around in 1950.

Don't miss the drinks menu - there are some wonderful sounding options like jackfruit moussy drink ($4.50), passionfruit punch ($4.50) and winter melon tea ($3.30).

Service here is the no-fuss variety. You walk in and wait for a table to become available. A waitress then shows you to a table, and you're left with food and drink menus. Once you've worked out what's for lunch, you wander down to the back counter, to order and pay. Take your number back to your table, and the meals come out pretty quickly. If you get a chance while you're ordering, have a look into the kitchen. I was amazed how many chefs were in there, bustling away.

For me, Little Singapore is a terrific lunch spot. The food is good, servings are very generous, it's cheap and meals come out pronto. Amazingly, until about 2 weeks ago I didn't even know it existed. I love stumbling across new places like Little Singapore. And if you live on the Southside, there's also a Little Singapore at Market Square, Sunnybank.

What does all this mean? Cheap, tasty Singaporean food served in a flash.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Good
Ambience - "Old Singapore" meets giant plasma TVs
Value for Money - Top Shelf
Vegetarian - Good

Little Singapore
42 Charlotte Street
Brisbane 4000
P - 07 3211 1177
E - lsgc@littlesingapore.com.au
W - http://www.littlesingapore.com.au

Mandarin Palace

After a few drinks at the Elephant & Wheelbarrow in the Valley on the weekend, a group of us headed off to dinner at the Mandarin Palace.

To be completely honest, the main reason we picked the Mandarin Palace was because we had a big group, and we were looking for somewhere in the Entertainment Book.

In all my 15 years or so of eating Asian food in the Valley, I'd never been to the Mandarin Palace before, so I didn't have any spectacular expectations. I also have to admit that by the time we arrived at restaurant, I'd had a few drinks, so keeping any kind of decent notes was out of the question.

We were shown to a big table in the back part of the restaurant, past the fish tanks containing lobsters and live fish. We sat right next to the karaoke machine, which unfortunately wasn't working. On the other hand, it was fortunate for the restaurant, otherwise we might never have actually left.

We ordered a few of the usual suspects when it came to entrees. I had a couple of the Malaysian chicken satay skewers to kick off the night ($5.80 for two). For some reason I always find it hard to go past chicken satays. Anyway these turned out to be ok, but the chicken wasn't exactly tender. There was plenty of sauce though, which was very tasty. Around the table we also had san choy bau with Chinese sausage ($8.40 for two) and vegetarian spring rolls ($4.40 for two). I didn't get to try any of the other entrees, but were told they were good.

There were some great sounding main courses on the menu, including lobster with ginger & shallot (market price), braised abalone with Chinese mushroom & Chinese vegetable ($49.90)and the more affordable crispy roast duck ($19.80).

We ordered about 7 main courses, which spun around the giant lazy Susan in the middle of the table. Why don't more restaurants have lazy Susans? They are perfect for sharing food in a big group. Anyway I'd picked the home made crackling roast pork ($19.50) mainly because the picture looked so good. It turned out to be excellent. It arrived exactly as it looked on the menu - thin slices of well cooked pork (which were still tender and moist) that had a great layer of crispy crackling on the top. It was so good I could have eaten this dish all night.

Other main courses that impressed the table were the Ma Po bean curd with no pork ($12.80) and the deep fried bean curd with salt & pepper ($11.80). The Ma Po bean curd was very good - the silken tofu was in small cubes, rather than the more crumbled style which I've had before.

Our meals finished with fortune cookies for all. Unfortunately, I lucked out on my fortune, which sadly wasn't "You will definitely win the lotto on Tuesday".

Service was friendly and helpful throughout the night. Considering the amount of food we ordered, our mains came out in good time. There was also plenty of steamed rice for all of us around the table.

After approaching Mandarin Palace with little expectation, I left the restaurant with a new place in the Valley that I'd be more than happy to visit again.

What does all this mean? Good, fresh & tasty Chinese food with interesting options outside the usual suspects.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Good
Ambience - Classier than your average Valley restaurant, but with tanks featuring live seafood
Value for Money - Good
Wine - Compact selection
Vegetarian - Good

Mandarin Palace
11 Duncan Street
Fortitude Valley 4006
P - 07 07 32523636
W - http://mandarinpalace.com.au/

Menulog Competition

Thanks to the good people at Menulog, food bling Brisbane is able to offer its first competition...

Menulog has recently launched an online home delivery service, and has helpfully donated a voucher to food bling, Brisbane. You can find their home delivery site here. Next time you can't be bothered whipping up your regular eight course degustation dinner, you can order online from various restaurants around Brisbane and have the meal delivered to your door.

So the reader out there that sends in the most imaginative or original suggestion for a new cafe/deli/restaurant for me to visit will pick up a $30 Menulog voucher. Please get your suggestions in by Sunday 22 March 2009. Entries can be sent in by using the comments form at the foot of the page. Good luck!

Av-a-Chat Cafe

I was thrilled when I recently found out that Av-a-Chat Cafe, a local Blackwood Street eatery, had undergone a change of management and become a Vietnamese restaurant. No longer do I have to drive to the Valley to get a fix of good Vietnamese food.

At this stage I've only had a few takeaway meals from Av-a-Chat. At the moment, the current takeaway menu is pretty compact, with 6 appetizers ($6-$7), 7 main courses (all $11) and 5 desserts ($4-$8). They've told me that they're still working out the local market, and hope to increase the takeaway menu options in the future.

I've had a couple of the Vietnamese rice vermicelli salads, and my favourite so far is the grilled pork salad (pictured). Along with the obvious grilled pork and vermicelli, the salad also includes cucumber, lettuce, carrot and plenty of fresh mint, with some fish sauce to pour over the top. It's great value at $11, and is currently my number one emergency dinner, when I get home too late or just couldn't be bothered cooking anything. At least I can convince myself it's healthy.

If you eat in (which I will sooner or later), there's a bigger menu to choose from. Av-a-Chat also does breakfast and lunch, which I'll have to try out. In the meantime, it's great to see a new Vietnamese restaurant opening on the Northside.

Av-a-Chat Cafe

6/48 Grovely Terrace

Mitchelton 4053

P - 07 3855 1328

Cam Ranh

My quest to visit as many of Brisbane's Vietnamese restaurants as I can this time led me to Cam Ranh at Darra. We had tried to get into Que Huong, but it looked packed and when we arrived a Chinese dragon was dancing through the restaurant to the sound of some great drumming. I was starving, so we walked around the corner to Cam Ranh instead.

It turned out Cam Ranh was pretty much full as well, but they did find us a table out on the footpath. As soon as we sat down, a thermos of jasmine tea was brought to our table, which was really thirst quenching on a steamy summer night.

My attention was quickly grabbed by the hand written sign on the front door, which said "Mud Crab $35/kilo". Last time I had mud crab at an Asian restaurant it was about $60 a kilo, so the price at Cam Ranh sounded like a bargain.

The menu at Cam Ranh is enormous, with over 200 dishes to choose from, covering both Vietnamese and Chinese food. The menu is broken down into entree, soup, Pho, Hu Tieu (clear rice noodle soup), Mi (egg noodle soup), congee, rice, rice vermicelli, rice paper rolls, chow mein, Hofan noodles, pippis, clam, sweet shell (I wasn't exactly sure what that was), oyster, soft shell crab, mud crab, fish, lamb, chicken, duck, beef, pork, prawn, scallop, calamari and vegetables. You could eat here every week for a year and not even get close to trying all the dishes.

Before arriving at the restaurant, I'd already decided I'd have a soup for entree, so it was just a matter of picking one. There were about 25 to choose from, which meant it wasn't the easiest of decisions. After weighing up interesting soups like crab meat & asparagus, Pho tai gan (rice noodle soup with tendon) and Hu Tieu tom thit (prawn & pork clear rice noodle soup), I ordered the Pho tai (rice noodle soup with sliced beef). Sometimes I just can't go past a good bowl of Pho.

The Pho tai came out in a big bowl, with plenty of flat rice noodles. The soup was served with a separate plate which contained bean sprouts, sliced red chilli, basil and lemon. That way you can make the Pho as hot or as tangy as you like. I loaded it up with a handful of bean sprouts, a few bits of chilli and plenty of basil. As hungry as I was, I didn't manage to finish it. The soup had a lovely beefy, slightly salty flavour and was great. The other reason I didn't finish the Pho is because when I was about half way through the bowl, my huge plate of mud crab arrived at the table.

We also ordered a serve of the rice paper rolls with vegetarian spring rolls. Again, this turned out to be a big serving. The fillings were rice vermicelli, lettuce, mint, bean sprouts, cucumber, pickled carrot and radish. I made up a couple of rolls (I can't resist a rice paper roll on a hot summer night), but we still got nowhere near finishing the plate.

There are so many choices for main course on the menu, I won't even try to go through them. Some of the dishes that appealed to me were pippis in XO sauce, soft shell crab in salt & pepper, Vietnamese fish hot pot, duck in Son Dong style, camp fire beef with rice paper salad and the chilli scallops. Although they all sounded great, I couldn't go past the Singapore mud crab. I know it's not Vietnamese, but it's not every day you walk into a restaurant with such good value mud crabs, so it would have just been wrong of me not to order it. If Singapore mud crab isn't your thing, there were about 8 other mud crab options, which are no doubt equally as delicious.

When I ordered the mud crab, the waitress asked me if it was just the 1 kilo. Maybe she thought I needed a bit of fattening up, but there was no way I was going to get through 2 kilos by myself.
As it turned out, almost everyone else in the restaurant seemed to be eating mud crabs. The three young Vietnamese kids sitting at the table next to us with their parents were tucking into a huge platter of mud crabs, which was just making me hungrier by the minute.

Anyway, as with all the rest of our meals, my mud crab was huge. We found out later when we paid that it was all one crab, that was actually 1.2 kilos. I don't think I've ever eaten so much crab in my life before. The mud crab had been broken into plenty of manageable bits, and was absolutely coated in the Singapore sauce. There were no crab crackers, so you either had to dig the crab meat out with a chopstick (which worked pretty well) or just crack them in your teeth, which is what all the locals were doing. The mud crab was excellent. It hadn't been overcooked, and had plenty of crab flesh. There was so much that, despite my best efforts, I just couldn't finish it. I hadn't even ordered any rice. By the way, the reason there's no photo of the mud crab is because my hands were covered in sauce by that stage of the night.

I've already mentioned that my mud crab came out before I'd finished the Pho. Actually, both our mains arrived while we were still munching away on our starters. It was a hot night, so neither of them were going to go cold, but it didn't give our stomachs a chance to have a break before the next round of food.

Our other main course was a soup with tofu, herbs and vegetables, which my wife had ordered from the steamboat section of the menu. Although this looked great when it arrived, it turned out to be full of pork, which wasn't mentioned on the menu. When my wife checked with the waitress, she was told that it wasn't meat, it was pork. Anyway they were good enough to take it away and replace it with a plate of stir fried vegetables in oyster sauce. There were plenty of snow peas, Chinese broccoli, carrot, mushroom and corn, which were piled up on the plate. I didn't actually try any, because I was too preoccupied with my mud crab, but I'm told it was very tasty.

I eventually admitted defeat on my mud crab. By that time both my hands and probably half my face were covered in the Singapore sauce (not to mention my shirt). Luckily for me though we still had the hot water bowl from the rice paper rolls and we'd both been given hand towels, so that was all cleaned up pretty quickly.

By this stage of the night we hadn't actually managed to finish one of the dishes we ordered, so dessert wasn't an option. All up, our dinner was $72, which included a lychee drink and a fanta. When you consider that my mud crab was $40, the food at Cam Ranh is great value.

Cam Ranh is BYO, and there is a bottle shop just around the corner. The inside of the restaurant looks very similar to many suburban Asian restaurants around Australia. It was definitely preferable to the footpath where we sat, which was pretty much devoid of any ambience at all. But the food was good, and that's why we'd made the trip out to Darra in the first place.

If you're looking for a new Vietnamese restaurant to try, Cam Ranh would be a good start. It has such a huge menu that it would be the perfect place to take a bunch of friends and order a whole heap of food you've never tried before. Or you could just order about 5 different mud crabs in and be in seafood nirvana for the rest of the night. Be warned though, if everyone orders a dish each, you'll never get through them all.

Although the decor and surroundings at Cam Ranh are pretty basic, and service is of the quick, no fuss variety, the food is good. I'll definitely be going back, even if its just for more of their delicious mud crabs.

What does all this mean? A huge selection of Vietnamese and Chinese food, with an emphasis on seafood, at very reasonable prices.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Ok
Ambience - Not much out on the footpath
Value for Money - Great
Wine - BYO
Vegetarian - Ok

Cam Ranh
23 Railway Parade
Darra 4076
P - 07 3375 4348

Samies Girl

I had a real longing for a seafood lunch yesterday, so I headed over to Samies Girl at Hamilton. I'd heard lots of good things about Samies Girl, but had never actually made it into the shop until yesterday.

Anyway it turned out to be a great place to buy seafood. There are prawns, oysters, scallops, mussels, whole fish, fish fillets, crabs, bugs and octopus in the display cabinet, together with a few doors of frozen seafood. I was there at about 1pm on a Tuesday and the place was surprisingly busy. Obviously I wasn't the only one in need of some good seafood on a hot Summer's day.


I ended up with a dozen small oysters from Port Macquarie and two plump Moreton Bay bugs for $26. The bugs had plenty of flesh in them and were particularly good.

If you live on the Northside, pop in to Samies Girl next time you're on the lookout for good seafood. It sure beats driving all the way out to Scarborough for a trip to Morgans.

Samies Girl
15 Hercules Street
Hamilton 4007
P - 07 3131 4120
W - http://www.samiesgirl.com.au/

Gelateria Cremona

I've been to Gelateria Cremona a few more times over the last couple of months. Their gelati is so good that I now make excuses for detours to Rosalie at any time of the day. Over the last few months I've been lucky enough to try:

• pomegranate (tart & tangy with an amazing colour)
• earl grey tea (subtle, but a good match with pomegranate)
• coconut (delicious, even though I'm not the biggest fan of coconut usually)
• feijoa (a really weird, slightly gritty texture, but good flavour)
• lemon, lime & bitters (fantastically refreshing - you could walk out with a tub on a hot day)
• persimmon (lovely smooth texture, with a subtle flavour)
• Christmas spiced chocolate (perfect for chocolate lovers in the festive season)
• macadamia nut (smooth & rich - I'm a big fan of any macadamia ice cream)

When I was in there the other night they also had a Christmas pudding flavour, which tasted delicious. By that stage of the night, 3 scoops of gelati was going to be a struggle, so sadly I had to give it a pass.

It's great to see new flavours popping up at Gelateria Cremona all the time. That's what keeps us all coming back for their amazingly good gelati.

Gelateria Cremona
Shop 5, 151 Baroona Road
Rosalie Village, Paddington 4064
P - 07 3367 0212
E - gelateriacremona@yahoo.com.au

Peter's Fish Market

My favourite place to get fish & chips at the Gold Coast is Peter's Fish Market. I can't remember how I stumbled across it the first time, but for the last few years it's the only place at the GC where I buy seafood.

Peter's Fish Market is a pretty innocuous looking building, only just down the road from more salubrious places like Palazzo Versace, Marina Mirage and the Sheraton Mirage Resort. Once you step inside though, your senses will quickly be drawn towards all the terrific fresh seafood on display. You'll find oysters, bugs, crabs, prawns, octopus, whole fish and the list goes on.

The best part about Peter's Fish Market though is that you can pick a fillet of fish (there are usually about 15 or so to choose from) and get that fillet cooked exactly how you like, with a serve of crunchy chips, wedges or whatever takes your fancy. It's much more fun than the fish & chips "special" that we've all eaten at some stage or another. For me, usually it's a toss up between red emperor or coral trout, which are my two favourite fish. This time I went for a good thick fillet of coral trout, which was grilled perfectly. You'll pay for the fillet according to its weight, plus a small cooking charge. Believe me, its worth paying a few more dollars for some quality fish & chips.

Once you've got your prawns, oysters or fish & chips, there are tables outside and across the road. If you're there at a busy time though, seats will be at a premium.

Next time you're feeling peckish for some seafood at this end of the Gold Coast, drop in to Peter's Fish Market. You'll find it hard not to walk out with bags full of fresh seafood.

Peter's Fish Market
120 Seaworld Drive
Main Beach 4217
P - 07 5591 7747
E - shop@petersfish.com.au
W - http://www.petersfish.com.au/

Pho Vietnam

On a hot summer's day, there's nothing more I love for lunch than some really good Vietnamese food. That's why on most trips to the Gold Coast I usually end up at Pho Vietnam for lunch.

I don't normally have time to post about food court eateries, but Pho Vietnam is so good, it's more than worthy of a mention. Although it serves plenty of very reasonably priced noodle dishes, their rice paper rolls are king if you ask me. For $6 you get 3 big rice paper rolls and there are plenty to choose from - prawn, prawn & pork, chicken, chicken & avocado, tofu, vegetable or avocado. Team up your favourite flavours with one of the dipping sauces and its happy days.

These are some of the best (not to mention cheapest) Vietnamese rice paper rolls I've ever come across at a food court. So next time you are wondering what to have for lunch at the coast, head along to Pho Vietnam for fresh, tasty rice paper rolls. And there's a great Asian grocery store (Ming Mei Asian Supermarket) just next to the food court, which is definitely worth a visit.

Pho Vietnam
Fig Tree Foodcourt
Australia Fair Shopping Centre
42 Marine Parade
Southport 4215
P - 07 5591 5746